Tom Cruise’s latest film is proving to be one of the most divisive movies of the year, with many critics giving it scathing reviews.

The Hollywood legend plays the title role of Digger Rockwell, an oil magnate whose drilling company causes a natural disaster that threatens to wipe out much of the world. The film, which also stars John Goodman and Riz Ahmed, held its world premiere in London last week, attended by the Prince and Princess of Wales. The embargo has now lifted on reviews, with critics either loving or hating the environmental satire as it stands at 53 per cent on at the time of writing.

Some of the most passionate arguments, however, came from the negative side of the divide, with David Ehrlich of writing: “ is a mega-budget Dr. Strangelove riff so detached from human truth that its most believable character is a one-eyed animatronic cat named Maggie.”

William Bibianni of concluded: “ is what happens when you give the week’s worst sketch an inexplicably large budget and delusions of grandeur.”

Nick Schager of dismissed the film as “a tedious satire, slamming capitalistic greed, anti-environmental profiteering, rampant corruption, and horrid narcissism with all the bluntness of the shovel its protagonist reveres.”

David Fear of lamented: “Big swings can win you games, make balls sail out of parks, get folks standing and cheering at witnessing someone going for it with all they’ve got. They can also result in the deafening whoosh of a massive swing-and-a-miss.”

Reflecting the film’s divisive nature, many critics gave the film a high score, with describing it as an “art-house extravaganza”, calling it “wildly surprising,” and praising Cruise’s “brilliant, daring performance”.

is in cinemas from October 2. Recently, Tom Cruise weighed in on the effect of AI on the future of filmmaking.